On April 28, 1995 the faculty of the School of Nursing voted to adopt the Professional Integrity System (PROFITS). PROFITS was implemented on August 21, 1995.
What is the Purpose of PROFITS?

PROFITS delineates a standard of behavior expected of all faculty, staff and students associated with the School. It builds on values brought to the academic setting and provides a means of incorporating these values to form the foundation of professional nursing practice. This standard addresses behaviors in classroom and clinical settings, evaluation and non-evaluation situations, and research and scholarly endeavors. It promotes a spirit of community conducive to mutual trust and responsibility among students, faculty and staff. The System also delineates a process for handling occurrences of academic misconduct or abuse of academic resources by students. PROFITS is designed to promote (a) professional and ethical standards of behavior in the nursing student role; (b) mutual trust and responsibility among students, faculty, and staff; (c) shared responsibility for development, implementation and evaluation of the PROFITS system; and (d) an environment in which academic misconduct or abuse of academic resources is not tolerated.

How Will PROFITS Fulfill These Purposes?

To fulfill these purposes the PROFITS Committee will provide education for all continuing and new students, faculty, and staff. You will receive information about the PROFITS philosophy, purposes, and procedures, including the definitions of academic misconduct and abuse of academic resources and examples of both; student, faculty, and staff responsibilities under PROFITS; and a description of the procedures that the PROFITS Committee will follow when carrying out its functions. In addition, the PROFITS Committee will investigate and hear instances of suspected misconduct.

The PROFITS pledge

To indicate an intent to maintain academic integrity while enrolled at the KU School of Nursing each continuing student must sign the following pledge:

"I pledge that I will not give, receive, nor tolerate unauthorized aid, nor will I abuse academic resources while I am a member of this academic community."

Summary

With the implementation of PROFITS in fall semester a new level of responsibility and accountability will be expected of all students. Professional nurses demonstrate integrity in their relations with patients, the public, other nurses, and health care providers in other disciplines. By placing a greater emphasis on integrity in the academic setting faculty and administrators at the KU School of Nursing believe we will better prepare you for your nursing career. As you learn more about PROFITS over the coming months we believe you too will see and appreciate the value of the Professional Integrity System and its aims.

Academic Misconduct: (adapted from the University of Kansas Senate Rules and Regulations, Article II, Section 6)

Academic misconduct by a student will include, but not be limited to: cheating on examinations whether by a student on his/her own behalf or by giving to another student or receiving from another student unauthorized aid on examinations; giving or receiving of unauthorized aid in the preparation of notebooks, papers, reports, nursing assessments and/or care plans, or other types of assignments, or in the preparation of master's theses or doctoral dissertations; or knowingly misrepresenting the source of any academic work, falsification of research results, plagiarizing of another's work, violation of regulations or ethical codes for the treatment of human and animal subjects, or otherwise acting dishonestly in research; and knowingly violating the rights of patients for safe, professional and humane treatment.

Abuse of academic resources: abuse of academic resources includes unauthorized access to and/or use of:

1. Information systems (computer, telephone, print materials);
   
2. Security systems (keys, secret codes, etc.).

PROFITS upholds behaviors reflective of individual responsibility, mutual trust, professional values, and standards. PROFITS values an academic environment free of academic misconduct or abuse of academic resources. When in doubt, the student must clarify with the instructor, the appropriateness of behaviors that may violate PROFITS. The following are non-acceptable behaviors in NRSG 430.

General:

1. Unless specified, all work in this course is to be completed alone.
2. In completing the course assignments, students are allowed/encouraged to use any resources (supplemental texts, information on the World Wide Web, etc.), other than human, to supplement the required readings and learning activities
3. Regarding peer review: Misconduct includes indiscriminately awarding points regardless of the quality of the student peer's performance.
4. Duplicating a videotape that has been assigned as a course requirement is considered abuse of academic resources.
5. Abuse of academic resources includes copying academic software from a KUMC computer for use on your personal home computer.

1. Plagiarizing, the presentation of the words or ideas of another person without proper citation or attribution, is considered academic misconduct. Including more than 5 words in a row from a source requires quotation marks and direct citation according to APA format.
2. Students are encouraged to seek editorial feedback regarding writing style, APA style and clarity of papers from other students, professional colleagues, or staff of the Student Services Department, Student Center.
3. Misconduct includes submitting a paper that you did not write yourself including using papers from the internet and/or copying any or all of web pages without quotations and correct citation.
4. Misconduct includes submitting the same paper that has been turned in to fulfill the requirements for another course.
5. Reference in a paper to information obtained from non-print materials (i.e. videotapes, scholarly presentations) must be cited according to APA style. Failure to do so will be considered plagiarism.

1. Misconduct includes tolerating or aiding other group members who do not participate in the group process or make ongoing contributions to the product.
2. Misconduct includes failure to contribute to the group work.
3. Members of a designated group are responsible for assuring that all students whose names appear on the project contributed. The name of a group member who did not contribute to the project should not be listed on the assignment.